17th July 2008

Solarcentury has developed an innovative, quick to install and high yield, solar photovoltaic (PV) solution for the industrial roof of Spanish retailer ‘Eroski’. The solar was recently installed on one of their warehouses in San Augustin de Guadalix, Spain. The PV plant was installed on the 10,600m2 roof in order to meet the planning requirement of the Código Técnico de la Edificación to reduce the consumption of conventional grid electricity and supply electricity from renewable sources. This solution offers the opportunity to add value to large roof spaces such as logistics warehouses.

This project presented many challenges that could only be faced by providing a bespoke design solution. The building was already built and the installation had to be retrofitted. Also the warehouse was a chilled unit and required a solution with no perforation of the roof, to prevent thermal bridges and to avoid impacting the excellent thermal insulation of the envelope of the building. Solarcentury’s Energy Roof solution was the answer to deliver a successful PV installation and meet the CTE requirements under the demanding technical conditions imposed by the building.

Solarcentury’s light weight solution allowed high speed installation of the 180 panels with minimum interaction with the roof. The intuitive fixing method allowed the installers to fit the 36.9 kWp photovoltaic system in a couple of days only. The high performance 180 Sunpower panels of 205Wp allowed optimal electricity production on a restricted roof area. Also by mounting them at a 10 degrees angle, this minimised the interference with the wind and as a result minimises the steel needed to reinforce the mounting and the building structures.

The photovoltaic plant of 36.9 kWp should produce 49,000kWh of clean CO2 free electricity per annum. This is the equivalent to the consumption of 13 Spanish homes. Solarcentury says this solution will prevent the release in the atmosphere of 19 tons of CO2 per annum. For every unit of electricity exported, Eroski is entitled to 0.44 Euro with the Feed in tariff system. If all electricity generated was exported, Eroski would receive 21,560 Euro per year.

Joaquín Piqueras, Director of Solarcentury España stresses that “This project is very important for Solarcentury and we are very proud to provide Eroski with a bespoke solution that matches exactly their needs. Thanks to our experience in numerous projects in the UK, we have noted that one of the main needs of our clients is to have systems that can easily be integrated to the existing structure and that would resist to the wind as well as being safe and won’t impact the activities of our client. It is very important that the energy roof adapts not only to the construction process but also to the building structure without representing any additional effort for the installer”. Meanwhile Solarcentury is also involved in a small scale domestic heating project in Northern Ireland with W Copeland and Son. Copeland has plans to build 34 units, these will be a mixture of semi detached, town houses and apartments with innovative solar electric generating roof systems that use Solarcentury’s solar tiles.

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